{{Template:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}}} is designed to be used to create shortened footnotes, a citation style which pairs a short, author-date citation in a footnote with a complete citation in the references section at the end of the article (see example below). This citation style is used to reduce clutter in the edit window and to combine multiple citations to the same source.

Common problems and known workarounds are given in the section possible issues section below.

There are several other templates that are designed for use with shortened footnotes. They differ slightly in the way they format the author-date citation and how much of their functionality is automated. A full list of these related templates is below.

Note that the use (or even non-use) of these templates is an element of citation "style", and adding or removing them in articles with an established style should be consistent with that style. See WP:CITEVAR.

Also note that inline use of these templates, i.e. use of {{harv}} without <ref>...</ref> tags around it, was deprecated in September 2020. See also WP:PAREN.

Usageedit

{{{1}}} generates an "author-date" style short-cite from the following parameters:

with

• <last1> – required; surname of first author or corporate author
• <last2>–<last4> – positional parameters; surnames of next three authors; required if available in the full citation
• <year> – required; four-digit year; may have a lowercase disambiguation letter, like 2012a
• |p= – specific page referenced in the source (alias: |page= )
• |pp= – comma-separated list of individual pages and / or range(s) of pages referenced in the source (alias: |pages= )
• |loc= – in-source location when |p= and |pp= are inappropriate; may be used to supplement |p= and |pp=; information such as a section or figure number.

Typical usage is shown in the example below. The text and the footnote are connected by a bi-directional link – clicking on the superscript takes the reader to the footnote, clicking on the footnote number takes them back to the superscript. The clicking on the short citation takes them to the full citation in the references section.

Template {{{1}}} is placed inside <ref>...</ref> tags to create shortened footnotes. (Using {{{1}}} outside of <ref>...</ref> tags was deprecated in September 2020).

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>
More article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>
Still more article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|p=26}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book
 | last = Smith | first = John
 | date = 2020
 | title = Smith's Book
}}

Parametersedit

Author(s) and yearedit

The first four author surnames (or all authors if fewer than four; use the values from |lastN= or |authorN= ) are required, followed by the year of publication (from |year= or |date=). Authors past the fourth must be omitted or an error will result.

The possible issues section below describes workarounds for various common problems, such as large number of authors, no author name, multiple works in the same year, multiple authors with same last name and others.

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|Jones|2020|p=25}}</ref>

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|Jones|Brown|2020|p=25}}</ref>

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|Jones|Brown|Black|2020|p=25}}</ref>

Location in the source textedit

The optional parameters |p=, |pp= and |loc= can be used to indicate the location in the source, such as page numbers. For single pages, use |p=; for multiple pages (such as ranges), use |pp=. Use of |p= for multiple pages or |pp= for single pages can cause cite errors. |loc= can be used to specify a location in the source in another way, such as section numbers or chapters. The parameters |page= and |pages= exist as aliases for |p= and |pp=, respectively.

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|pp=25–26}}</ref>

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|loc=chpt. 3}}</ref>

Article text.<ref>{{{{{1}}}|Smith|2020|loc=section 7}}</ref>

Additional textedit

The optional parameter |postscript= or |ps= can be used to change the text which appears at the end of the note in the reference list. (See § Adding additional comments or quotes and § No closing period, below.) The postscript is only effective the first time {{sfn}} is used for a particular author, year and location.

Hard-coded link namesedit

Not available in {{sfn}} and similar templates.

The optional parameter |ref= is used to create an unusually named link from the short citation to the full citation. This parameter is usually not necessary, and it is more common to use {{sfnRef}} or {{harvid}} in the reference section. If you specify |ref=none, no hyperlink is created. However, if one does not want the link, it is always possible to simply use plain text instead of the template. The parameter |Ref= is an alias for |ref=.

Possible issuesedit

Adding additional comments or quotesedit

The templates {{harvnb}} or {{harvtxt}} can be used to add quotes or additional comments into the footnote. Examples are below.

Some information.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2011|p=2}}: "A quote verifying the information."</ref>
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

"A quote in a secondary source."<ref>{{harvtxt|Smith|2011|p=2}} quoted in {{harvtxt|Jones|2010|p=343}}</ref>
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

Nota bene: In the past, the use of |ps= has been advised to hold this additional information, but it is not suitable for this purpose. Two or more {{sfn}} templates with the same authors, same year, and same page, but different |ps= will result in a Cite error: The named reference ... was defined multiple times with different content message. This message happens because the reference names that {{sfn}} creates will be the same, but the content between the <ref name="FOOTNOTE..."> tag and the </ref> tag will be different. A workaround is to convert one or some of the {{sfn}} templates to {{harvnb}} wrapped in <ref>...</ref> tags.

Adding a URL for the page or locationedit

If a specific link to the page or section is available, a URL can be added to the location or page number.

{{harv|Smith|2011|loc=https://en.wikipedia.org chpt. 3}}

{{harv|Smith|2011|loc=https://en.wikipedia.org §7}}

Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2011|p=https://en.wikipedia.org 3}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book | last = Smith | date = 2011 | title = Smith's
other book }}

A citation inside an explanatory footnoteedit

Sometimes an explanatory footnote requires a citation. Templates like {{sfn}} can't be directly imbedded between <ref>...</ref> tags, because the following message will be produced: Cite error references missing group.

The templates {{efn}} and {{notelist}} can be used to create separate explanatory footnotes from short citations, as shown in the first example. An article that uses this technique extensively is Chinese Room.

It is also possible to use the magic word {{#tag:ref|...}} and the {{sfn}} template will work correctly inside the footnote, as shown in the second example.

Interesting fact.{{efn|Clarification of interesting fact.{{sfn|Smith|2018}}}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==Citations==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book
| last = Smith
| date = 2018
| title = Smith's other book }}

Interesting fact.{{#tag:ref|Clarification of interesting fact.{{sfn|Smith|2017}}}}

==Citations==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book
| last = Smith
| date = 2017
| title = Smith's other book }}